Understanding racism, sexism, heterosexism and class privilege.

1. z Understanding
Racism, Sexism,
Heterosexism, and
Class Privilege
Part II

2. z
Defining Racism
 Impact of racism begins early
 Preschool years
 Exposed to misinformation about people different than ourselves
 Most of early information we receive about others does not come from
firsthand experience
 Many grew up in neighborhoods with limited opportunities to interact with
people different from our own families
 Second hand information we do receive
 Distorted, shaped by cultural stereotypes, incomplete

3. z
Defining Racism
 Prejudice - Conceived judgment or opinion, usually based
on limited information created by continually being
exposed to misinformation about others
 Cultural Racism – the cultural images and messages that
affirm the assumed superiority of whites and the assumed
inferiority of people of color

4. z
Defining Racism
 Stereotypes. A widely held but simplified image or idea of a
particular type of person or thing believed in common by
others
 What are some common stereotypes?
 What kind of Asian are you?
 Internalized Oppression – when member of the stereotyped
group internalizes the stereotypical categories about his or her
own group to some degree

5. z
Defining Racism
 Can people other than whites be racist?
 Yes. If Racism is defined as racial prejudice.
 No. If there is no advantage based on race. People of color do
not benefit from racism.
 Example on page 115.
 Sexism usually associated with men discrimination
against women because men or men run systems
benefit from sexism

6. z
Defining Racism
 Active Racism
 Blatant, intentional acts of racial bigotry and discrimination
 Passive Racism
 Bystander acceptance of actions tantamount to racism
Ex.
 Not speaking out against discriminatory hiring practices
 Laughing when racists jokes are made
 Avoiding dealing with racial related situations

7. z
Beyond Hate: Strategic Racism
 Three Racisms
 The racism-as-hate model
 Most common understanding of racism emphasizes discrete acts of bigotry by malicious individuals
 Under this version, racism is easy to spot and clearly reprehensible
 Structural racism
 Racism under this view is woven into society’s fabric
 Institutional racism
 Implicit bias
 Stress that almost all of us draw on racial ideas at the implicit level, sorting those we meet and
forming early judgments virtually automatically long before our conscious minds have a chance to
recognize, let alone object to the errors.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrHIQIO_bdQ

8. z
Color-Blind Racism
 Abstract liberalism
 By framing race-related issues in the language of liberalism, whites can
appear “reasonable” and even “moral,” while opposing almost all practical
approaches to deal with de facto racial inequality.
 Ex. Opposing affirmative action programs because they give special
treatment to certain groups (ignoring underrepresentation)
 Naturalization
 When whites normalize actions or events that could otherwise be
considered racially motivated or racist
 Ex. Everyone just wants to spend time with people who are like them
 Ex. Everyone in upper management is white because that’s the way it
is

9. z
Color-Blind Racism
 Biologization of Culture
 No longer relies on claim that blacks are biologically inferior, they
biologized their presumed cultural practices. Used as a rationale for
explaining racial inequality
 Ex. Minorities are lazy and that’s why they don’t achieve anything
 Minimization of Racism
 Although whites and blacks believed that discrimination is still a
problem, they dispute its prominence
 Ex. Whites believe it has all but disappeared; Blacks believe is as
American as apple pie

10. z
Racial Themes
 Racialization
 One theme is the importance of racial categorizing in anti-Asian
violence
 Nativism and Racism
 “Intense opposition to an internal minority on the ground of its foreign
connections”
 Racial hierarchies and interracial conflict
 Asian Americans appear to occupy on a social and economic ladder
that places whites on top and blacks at the bottom
 Model minority
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg1X1KkVxN4

11. z
Ableism, Heterosexism, and Sexism
 Modes of Oppression
 Ableism
 Can lead to keeping disabled persons hidden
 Heterosexism
 Structuring of institutions so as to legitimate heterosexuality
only
 Sexism
 Sufficiently interfused with heterosexism that they are hard to
separate
 Modes of oppression work simultaneously

12. z
Homophobia as a Weapon of Sexism
 Who does gender roles serve?
 Men and women who seek power from them
 Who suffers from gender roles?
 Women most completely and men in part
 How are gender roles maintained?
 Weapons of sexism: economics, violence, and homophobia

13. z
Homophobia as a Weapon of Sexism
 Lesbian perceived as threat to nuclear family, male dominance and control, to very
heart of sexism
 Gay men perceived as threat to male dominance and control
 Homophobia expressed against them has same roots in sexism as homophobia
against lesbians
 Visible gay men objects of extreme hatred and fear by heterosexual men
 Breaking ranks with male heterosexual solidarity seen as damaging rent in very fabric
of sexism
 Betrayers, traitors who must be punished and eliminated
 Sexisms also affects males
 Rigid, dehumanizing gender roles

14. z
Homophobia as a weapon of sexism
 Being vulnerable to a homophobic world can lead to losses
 Employment
 Family
 Children
 Heterosexual privilege and protection
 Safety
 Mental health
 Community
 Credibility